Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican has reached out to Lucasfilm sources to check out what really behind all the Rogue One reshoot brouhaha that’s been going on this week.
Lucasfilm isn’t ‘officially’ commenting on the rumors, but given that EW has been one of their most frequent choices for film reveals in the past few years, this is probably as close as we’re going to get. Here’s the rundown:
→ The reshoots were indeed preplanned, though they have been moved back to summer to allow for adjustment. They expect to lock picture in August, with scoring beginning in September – earlier than The Force Awakens, which locked in October.
→ They are not reshooting 40% of the film, as Making Star Wars claimed yesterday. If that was the case, the film would likely have been pushed back.
→ The reshoots “have everything to do with clarity and character development” and are parts of larger scenes that are already shot. “It’s a lot of talking in cockpits,” one insider said.
→ One reason the reshoots are for such a long period has to do with scheduling the actors. With things being pushed back, the actors have other commitments that need to be worked around.
→ Christopher McQuarrie contributed to an earlier draft of the script, but is not involved at the moment. EW did find another script collaborator, though: Tony Gilroy, who came aboard in the spring and “has even been recruited to consult on other Star Wars projects.” He has a long association with Frank Marshall and also worked on Edwards’ Godzilla. He will act as a second unit director for the reshoots.
→ There have been other rumors/fears flying that the film is being “watered down” to appeal to the traditional Disney demographic. These accusations are unfounded, EW says, and Rogue One is still very much a war movie. The only people within Disney who’ve seen it are CEO Bob Iger and studio chief Alan Horn. There’s no feeling of “meddling” from the parent company, EW sources say, just gratefulness that they allowed the schedule alteration.
→ There have been no test screenings with the public. (Did anyone ever really buy that one?)
→ And, in what is no surprise to anyone, we’ll see more of Rogue One at Celebration Europe in July. Expect to be blown away.
Read the whole story at Entertainment Weekly.
Well, you sure called it.